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Politicians, economists and even some natural scientists have tended to assume that tipping points1 in the Earth system — such as the loss of the Amazon rainforest or the West Antarctic ice sheet — are of low probability and little understood. Yet evidence is mounting that these events could be more likely than was thought, have high impacts and are interconnected across different biophysical systems, potentially committing the world to long-term irreversible changes.

The impacts of climate change and the socioecological challenges they present are ubiquitous and increasingly severe. Practical efforts to operationalize climate-responsive design and management in the global network of marine protected areas (MPAs) are required to ensure long-term effectiveness for safeguarding marine biodiversity and ecosystem services. Here, we review progress in integrating climate change adaptation into MPA design and management and provide eight recommendations to expedite this process.

This planet is the home of life, born into existence and transformed over 3.8 billion years into a continuous tapestry, covering all possible places from the deep ocean floors to mountain summits. Ours is a bioclimatic world in which every organism, from bacterium to blue whale, inseparably contributes to the climate and surface conditions of Earth. This tapestry, of which we are a part, is unraveling, with its delicate patterns and motifs denigrated to near invisibility, disappearing at a rate and magnitude that rivals that of the great mass extinction events of the past (2, 3).

This report assesses the overall state of conservation in the Pacific Islands region of Oceania, that is, the 21 countries and territories covered by SPREP plus Pitcairn Island. The report uses an analysis of 16 indicators chosen in consultation with SPREP and based on the Global Biodiversity Indicator project (http://www.bipindicators.net).

A Pacific information brief from the Pacific Invasives Partnership (a working group of the Roundtable for Nature Conservation in the Pacific Islands)

A guiding presentation on a series of regional dialogue seminars and field visits held in order to raise awareness, capacity and identify opportunities for effective policy coherence, implementation and mainstreaming of nature-based solutions at the national level.

This integrated and vulnerability assessment takes a Whole of Island Approach which aims to address capacity constraints in Kiribati’s outer islands and to strengthen coordination among partners at the national level, local government level and community level

Since the adoption of Agenda 21 following the United Nations Conference on Environment and development in 1992, this report constitutes the first opportunity for Samoa to assess its situation with regard to sustainable development in the past decade

An assessment framework based on key habitats in Samoa:

* cloud forest and uplands

* lowlands, coastal strand

* nearshore marine, offshore marine, and rivers and streams

* climate change, air quality, waste disposal, renewable energy, and population pressures.

It also assesses the status of Samoa’s species of high conservation value, especially those that are endemic and critically endangered.